Shuttle-box mechanism for looms



LLJ. KNOWLES. Shuttle Bo'x Mechanism for Looms. No. 241,549; v Patented May 17, 1881.-

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cuts for some of these modifications have alpose of illustrating this invention that their UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

SHUTTLE-BOX MECHANISM FOR LOOMS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 241,549, dated May 17, 1881.

Application filed October 31, 1879.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, LUGIUS J. KNOWLES, of Worcester,in the State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Shuttle-Box Mechanism ior Looms, of which the following is a specification.

The invention is one of a number of modifications which I have made of the mechanism formerly employed by me for raising and lowering drop scuttle-boxes in the well-known looms bearing my name. Applications for patready been allowed, and other applications are pending. Each modification, however, is independentofthe others, and forms, or will form, the subject-matter of a separate application for a patent.

It is unnecessary for me to here describe the general features of my looms, or of looms to which the presentinvention is applicable, since these looms are well known to those skilled in the art; and of much of the mechanism employed forraising and lowering the tier of shuttle-boxes in the looms to which the present invention is applied, it is sufiicient to say that I make use of a pattern-barrel, two vibrating levers, two vibrating gears, two cylinder-gears, all as in my well-known looms, and as shown in patents to me, among others the patent hearing date January 21, 1873.

In the drawings I have, for convenience, shown the mechanism which illustrates my present invention as mounted on a panel in place of a loom-frame.

Figure 1 is a side elevation of such panel and mechanism attached to it. Fig. 2 is a crosssection on line w m of Fig. 1.

The panel is marked A, and will hereinafter be referred to as the loom-frame.

B B are the vibrating gears. In the loom as actually constructed the'se gears correspond to the vibrating gears 11 of my Patent No. 134,992, and are operated by the means there shown and in the manner there described. They are here represented as operated by crankpins p and p, and as turning upon a common fixed axis, a, it being unnecessary for the puraxes should beindepcndent of each other, and have shifting positions under the control of the The vibrating gears have a movement of about half a revolution.

C U are two connecting-rods, or, as they are termed by persons using my looms, the connectors. They are attached at their outer ends to crank-pins in the vibrating gears B B, as shown, and near these ends they are bent, that they may not interfere withthe half-revolutions of the vibrating gears. The inner end of the connector 0 is pivoted at m to the upper end of a lever, D, to whose lower end, a, is attached a cord, 0, which, running over a directing-pulley, E, is made fast to the shuttle-box rod S. To the inner end of the oonnector O is attached one end of a cord, (1, the other end of which, after passing partially around a large pulley,l?,is made fast to the leverD at k, somewhat below the middle of said lever. J is a bracket furnishing a bearing for the axis a, and also serving as a stop to limit the vibrations of the vibrating gears to about halfrevolutions.

S, the shuttle-box rod, carries a tier of four shuttle-boxes. Its path is represented as determined by two brackets, g g, the upper surface of the bracket 9 bein g supposed to be at the level of the race. In a loom as actually constructed and operated the shuttle-box rod, with its tier of shuttle-boxes, will fall by its own weight 5 but in the drawings I have represented that weight by a spring, 8. The shut tle-box rod is lifted by the cord 0, one endof which,as before stated, is secured to the lever D.

To clearly understand the operation of this mechanism it should be kept in mind that the weight of the tier of shuttle-boxes is sufficient to keep the cords 0 and d at all times taut. It will then be evident that the lever D, when operated by the cord cl, becomes a lever of the third class, the fulcrum being at m, the weight being at n, and the power, either a lifting or a yielding power, being applied at the point It; and it will also be evident that when the lever D is operated upon by the connector 0 in either direction it becomes a lever of the first class, the fulcrum being at k, the weight being at the end it, and the power, in one case a lifting-power and in the other a yielding or pushing power, being applied at m. The tautness of the cords renders the somewhat shifting position of the fulcrums immaterial. It is evident that the position of the pivot m is in nowise dependent upon the length of the cord at between the lever D and the pulley P, and in like manner that the said length of cord in nowise depends upon the position of the pivot m. Changing the position of the pivot m, by a movement of the connector 0, will swing the lower end of the lever D to or from the pulley E, and con sequently raise or lower the shuttle-box rod according to the direction of the movement. So, too, regardless of the position of the pivot m, the lower end of the lever D may be swung by taking in or letting out the cord (1. Now, as a matter of construction, the parts are so proportioned and adjusted that taking in or letting out the cord d a length equal to the throw of the connector G will move the lower end of the lever D a distance sutficient to vary the position of the shuttlebox rod two boxes, while swinging the lower end of the lever D, by a movementofconnector C,to the full length of its throw will vary the position of the shuttle-boX rod one box.

The connectors O G and mechanism for opcrating the same, in combination with the pulley P, cord d, lever l), a tier of shuttle-boxes and connecting mechanism, substantially as described, for the purpose specified.

LUOIUS J. KNOWLES. Witnesses:

W. P. PREBLE, Jr., W. W. SWAN. 

